OUR VICTORIAN LETTER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2509, 16 April 1902, Page 12

OUR VICTORIAN LETTER.

,Tkom Our Own Corbespon-dext.) MELBOURNE, April ?.. The big e\ent of the pa'-t week is the ip in When I wrote last week, Melbourne'iP.mf.ill record from the New Year w.i= only 2_.in, whilst the average for the iir.-l three months is s^in. The day after the mail loft rain .set in, and within three days pbout si>in fell in Melbourne; co tliat actually by the close of the three months the average had been exceeded, though a week before it was 3in behind. As the city and suburbs had scarcely ever shown to greatly the evil effects of the drought, the rain was a blessing indeed. But what has given a new tone to the whole country 'is the fall in the inland districts. Though Melbourne's record was not reached, yet, generally speaking, the agricultural and pastoral districts had from lin to 2in. It w;is the best rain in Victoria for seven years, because it came just at the right time. A good downpour in March or early April to start the ploughing and another in September to start the crops — and Victoria can struggle through. This season, therefore, begins well. We have had the requisite downpour in March. Last year there was none till June, which was very much too late. The long drought was making everything and everybody wretched ; the effect of the rain is very marked — there is a distinct rise of spirits throughout thft whole community. There is but one regret — only portion of the New South "Wales pastoral districts participated. Away out b:>ck in the north-west, where the runhoider has had tuch a dreadful time, not a .Irop fell. The new.s that two Australian officers in South Africa have been court-martialled and shot and a third sentenced to penal sei- itude. for life has created much stir. Only one of the three is n Victorian — Lieutenant Witton, who has ieopi\ed imprisonment. He was sentenced t > be si ot as well as the two ( Iher-. but for <-omo reason, which o\en he t\r>s not aware of, wa-. lot off with lile lmpiisonmcnt. None of the men, be it remembered, were terving with Australian contingents. They went to South Afri -a as members of contingents, but joined subsequently a force raised in South Africa nailed the Bush Veldt Carbineers. Some London papers, according to the cubic ju«=^ages hint that Morant and the others " lootixl " the Boers, and, not to put too fine a point on it, shot them so that they could "loot" them with greater facility. Nothing that can be ascertained here in any way corroborates this. Lieutenant Witton belongs to a respectable family in a country district, and is \ery unlikely to have tak-^n part m such a deed. Lieutenant Moriiit was apparently a kind of h<irum-«earum. He had led a purposeless, roving life in Austialia. Ho was a Bulletin poet ("The Breaker." he called himself), and when he left for South Africa the Bulletin staff gave him a dinner. His « or-t failing was his habit of borrowing withovt repaying But all tin 1 - doesn't nistify the belief that ho would '-hoot a Boor on purpose to rob him Thero 1-- a big demand throughout Victoria, for a reduction of public expenditure all round, and firstly for a reduction m tlie number of members of Parliament. F< d«ra tion has lobbed our local Legislature of much of its importance. What is being demanded is that each Houmj should be rut down by one half and thp number of Minister, m similar proportion So ith Austialia has set an example, by reducing the members of the Lowci House from 54 to 42 and cutting down the- uuin'vi of Mm i -tors by two Ono of the members of the Fe<'onl Ho'.^e of Representation — Mr Crouch, ono of the \pry poorest specimens ot the Vi<ton.m Protectionists — was the heio tho other dr>y uf a curious episode in a re\iew of the military foreo3. He is a lieutenant in the infantiy. His men occupied v, certain position in Albert Park, and the aitnk-iy toming along threatened to interfere with them Mr Crouch ordered his men to dx bayonet* to keep them back. The men got tl'eir blood up in some way, actually fixed bayonet-, and stabbed one of tho artillery hordes in the chest. The artillerymen wero rn'jch annoyed, and threatened to ha\e it out with the infantry when they went into tlip Easter encampment at Langwamn. The weather was so bad, however, that :iie encampment could not be held. Mr Cro.ich will be hati'ed ovt?r the coals There were all the elements of a serious disturbance*. No one who knows Mr Crouch experts common -en=e from him, but such men should not be entru-ted with military commands.